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Updated 2026-06-15

Morgan Stanley levels, Analyst to MD.
Scope, not title, sets the band.

Why this matters

Morgan Stanley runs a corporate-title ladder, Analyst to Associate to Vice President to Executive Director to Managing Director, shared across banking and technology. Morgan Stanley does not publish an official salary or level map; the pay below is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026 and is not official Morgan Stanley data, with Investment Banker and Technology pay quoted separately.

Scan my Morgan Stanley resumeFree to scanScope per bandBanking and tech pay split
By the numbers
Level range
Analyst to MD
Corporate-title ladder
IB Analyst median
~$140K
levels.fyi, June 2026
2025 MD class
173 new MDs
Announced Jan 10, 2025
Reach MD
~5 to 10%
Of starting analysts (industry)

The quick answer

What are the levels at Morgan Stanley and what do they pay?

Morgan Stanley uses corporate titles, not numbered levels: Analyst (roughly years 1 to 3), Associate (3 to 6), Vice President (6 to 9), Executive Director or ED (9 to 12, a mezzanine rung between VP and MD), and Managing Director or MD (12 plus, performance and origination gated). Technology uses the same titles, not a separate ladder. Morgan Stanley publishes no official salary or level map, so the pay here is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026 and is not official Morgan Stanley data. On the Investment Banker track, total compensation is reported with a median around $140K for an Analyst, $238K for an Associate, and $363K for a VP; ED and MD are not cleanly reported, so no IB ED or MD number is asserted. On the Technology track the Executive Director level (L6) is reported around $365K. Reaching MD is rare, only about 5 to 10 percent of starting analysts get there as a bulge-bracket industry benchmark, and the firm-wide MD total is not published, though Morgan Stanley named 173 new MDs in 2025. Scan your resume to see whether its scope language matches the band you are targeting. Scan your Morgan Stanley resume.

Morgan Stanley does not publish an official salary or level map. The figures below are commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026 and are not official Morgan Stanley data. Actual pay varies by division, location, performance bucket, and year. Total compensation means base salary plus bonus plus any stock.

The titles are shared across the firm, so scope, not title, is the reliable signal of band: an Analyst in banking and an Analyst in technology hold the same title but very different work and very different pay. That is why every band below splits the Investment Banker track from the Technology track, and why the year ranges are framed as typical reporting heuristics rather than policy.

The canonical ladder is Analyst, Associate, Vice President, Executive Director, and Managing Director. A generic Director title sometimes appears but is non-standard and team or region dependent. Executive Director is a mezzanine rung between VP and MD, and the step that changes a career most is ED to MD, gated on performance and on bringing in business.

Comp data is thinnest and least reliable at the top. The Investment Banker bands for Executive Director and Managing Director are not cleanly reported on levels.fyi, so no IB ED or MD number is asserted here. The only credible top-band figure is a bulge-bracket industry benchmark of roughly $1M to $2M plus total for a junior MD (Mergers and Inquisitions, general to bulge-bracket banks), which is not a Morgan Stanley number. For any anchor number on a resume or in a negotiation, cite levels.fyi by name and date it as June 2026.

Salary reference, Investment Banker track

Morgan Stanley banking pay
by level, at a glance.

Median total compensation and the typical reported range for each band on the Investment Banker track, consolidated from the levels.fyi Morgan Stanley uploads. Total compensation means base salary plus bonus plus any stock. The Investment Banker overall median across levels is around $200K. Executive Director and Managing Director are not cleanly reported on levels.fyi, so no IB figure is asserted for those bands. Every figure is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026, not official Morgan Stanley data.

LevelTitleMedian total compTypical range
AnalystAnalyst~$140K~$110K to $180K plus
AssociateAssociate~$238K~$150K to $325K plus
Vice PresidentVice President~$363K~$210K to $525K plus
Executive DirectorExecutive DirectorNot assertedNo clean levels.fyi figure
Managing DirectorManaging DirectorNot assertedNo clean levels.fyi figure

Source: commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026. Not official Morgan Stanley compensation, and it varies by division, location, and year. Executive Director and Managing Director show no clean levels.fyi figure, so no IB number is asserted for those bands.

Salary reference, Technology track

Software Engineer pay
on the same titles.

Technology is not a separate ladder: software engineers map to the same Analyst, Associate, VP, ED, and MD titles. This is the one place Executive Director compensation is honestly citable, because the Investment Banker ED band is not cleanly reported. The Software Engineer overall US median is around $170K. The MD-equivalent level above L6 is not asserted. Every figure is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026, not official Morgan Stanley data.

Tech levelTitleMedian total comp
L3Analyst~$114K
L4Associate~$151K
L5Vice President~$244K
L6Executive Director~$365K
Above L6Managing Director equivalentNot asserted

Source: commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026. Not official Morgan Stanley compensation. Technology uses the same titles as the rest of the firm, not a separate ladder. The MD-equivalent level above L6 is not asserted.

The ladder, band by band

Each band: scope, comp,
and the resume signal it expects.

For each band, the corporate title, scope of ownership, and the resume signal the level expects, with Investment Banker and Technology compensation folded separately into the signal. Titles are shared across the firm, tenure ranges are typical reporting heuristics, and all pay is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026, not official Morgan Stanley data. For the wider hiring picture, start with the Morgan Stanley resume guide.

Analyst
Analyst

Analyst (entry)

Scope of ownership

Entry level, commonly the first 1 to 3 years out of undergrad. Owns the modeling, data, and deck production behind a deal or trade: building and checking financial models, comparable analyses, pitch materials, and the underlying spreadsheets. Technology uses the same Analyst title, with no separate numbered engineering ladder.

Resume signal & comp

Title on a resume reads simply as Analyst; lead with the modeling, transaction, or production work you owned and one quantified outcome. Investment Banker total compensation is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026 with a median around $140K (range roughly $110K to $180K plus); the Technology Analyst track (L3) is around $114K. Commonly reported, not official Morgan Stanley data.

Associate
Associate

Associate (mid)

Scope of ownership

Mid level, commonly 3 to 6 years in band, reached either by direct post-MBA hire or by promotion from Analyst. Owns workstreams end to end: manages the analysts, drives the model and analysis, and is the day-to-day point of contact on execution. Technology Associates own features and standard projects with some guidance under the same title.

Resume signal & comp

Title reads as Associate; lead with workstreams owned, execution managed, and people coordinated, plus a quantified result. Investment Banker total compensation is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026 with a median around $238K (range roughly $150K to $325K plus); the Technology Associate track (L4) is around $151K. Commonly reported, not official Morgan Stanley data.

Vice President (VP)
Vice President (VP)

Vice President (senior)

Scope of ownership

Senior level, commonly 6 to 9 years in. Owns deal or desk execution, manages associate and analyst teams, and carries real client and revenue responsibility. Technology VPs own cross-team technical scope under the same title. A generic Director title sometimes appears but is non-standard and team or region dependent; the canonical track is Analyst to Associate to VP to ED to MD.

Resume signal & comp

Title reads as Vice President; lead with deals or books owned, revenue influenced, and teams managed, not execution mechanics. Investment Banker total compensation is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026 with a median around $363K (range roughly $210K to $525K plus); the Technology VP track (L5) is around $244K. Commonly reported, not official Morgan Stanley data.

Executive Director (ED)
Executive Director (ED)

Executive Director (mezzanine rung between VP and MD)

Scope of ownership

A mezzanine rung between VP and MD, commonly years 9 to 12 and junior to Managing Director. Owns deal execution and manages relationships, but is not yet the primary originator of business. Technology EDs (L6) sit at the same band under the same title.

Resume signal & comp

Title reads as Executive Director; lead with deal execution led, relationships managed, and teams run, framed below MD-level origination. The Investment Banker ED band is NOT asserted: levels.fyi shows no clean figure for it as of June 2026, so no IB ED number is printed here. The Technology track is the one place ED comp is honestly citable: the Executive Director track (L6) is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026 around $365K. Commonly reported, not official Morgan Stanley data.

Managing Director (MD)
Managing Director (MD)

Managing Director (top of the ladder)

Scope of ownership

The most senior professional title and the top of the ladder, commonly year 12 plus and performance and origination gated. Owns client relationships, revenue generation, and deal origination, with direct P&L responsibility. Promotion runs from the ED ranks, roughly 2 to 3 years ED to MD, gated on bringing in business.

Resume signal & comp

Title reads as Managing Director; lead with revenue owned, client relationships originated, and business built. No MD comp number is asserted here: the Investment Banker MD band is not cleanly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026, and the MD-equivalent technology level above L6 is also not asserted. The only credible top-band figure is a bulge-bracket INDUSTRY benchmark of roughly $1M to $2M plus total for a junior MD (Mergers & Inquisitions, general to bulge-bracket banks), which is NOT a Morgan Stanley number. Reaching MD is rare: only about 5 to 10 percent of those who start as analysts ever get there, a bulge-bracket industry benchmark, not a Morgan Stanley statistic.

Notes on the comp figures

Morgan Stanley total compensation is base plus a bonus that grows as a share of pay at senior bands, and in banking the bonus is the dominant and most variable component. Investment Banker and Technology pay diverge sharply at every level, which is why they are quoted separately throughout. The Investment Banker Executive Director and Managing Director bands are not cleanly reported on levels.fyi, so no IB number is asserted for them; the Technology Executive Director level (L6) is the one place ED comp is honestly citable, around $365K. The only credible MD figure is a bulge-bracket industry benchmark of roughly $1M to $2M plus for a junior MD (Mergers and Inquisitions), which is not a Morgan Stanley number. All figures are commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026, not official Morgan Stanley data, and vary by division, location, and year.

ED

Executive Director

Rank
A mezzanine rung between VP and MD, junior to MD.
Years of experience (MS)
Commonly years 9 to 12.
Primary job
Deal execution and managing relationships.
Origination
Helps manage relationships, not yet the primary originator.
P&L
Limited or shared P&L exposure.
Rarity
A common senior rung.
Promotion
Promoted from VP.
Comp (levels.fyi MS, June 2026)
Technology track around $365K median; the Investment Banker track is not asserted.
MD

Managing Director

Rank
The most senior professional title, the top of the ladder.
Years of experience (MS)
Commonly year 12 plus, performance gated.
Primary job
Revenue generation and winning deals.
Origination
Owns client relationships and deal origination.
P&L
Direct P&L responsibility, owns most of the revenue.
Rarity
Rare: only about 5 to 10 percent of starting analysts reach it (bulge-bracket industry benchmark).
Promotion
Promoted from the ED ranks, roughly 2 to 3 years ED to MD, gated on bringing in business.
Comp (levels.fyi MS, June 2026)
Not asserted on levels.fyi. The only credible figure is a bulge-bracket INDUSTRY benchmark of roughly $1M to $2M plus total for a junior MD (Mergers & Inquisitions, general to bulge-bracket banks), NOT a Morgan Stanley number.
Making Managing Director

The MD promotion class,
and how rare the title is.

Because Investment Banker Executive Director and Managing Director pay is not cleanly reported on levels.fyi, the defensible signal at the top of the ladder is the promotion class and the rarity, not a comp figure. Morgan Stanley announces a new MD class each year, but the firm-wide total number of Managing Directors is not published.

New MD class by year

Morgan Stanley names a new Managing Director class annually. The 2025 class of 173 was announced January 10, 2025. The firm-wide total number of MDs is not published. Source: Banking Dive and Business Wire.

2025173 new Managing Directors, announced January 10, 2025.
2024155 new Managing Directors.
2023184 new Managing Directors.
2022199 new Managing Directors.
Firm-wide totalNot published. Morgan Stanley does not disclose a total MD headcount.

Promotion-class counts from Banking Dive and Business Wire. The total MD population is not disclosed by Morgan Stanley.

How rare the title is

Reaching Managing Director is the exception, not the path. As a bulge-bracket industry benchmark, only about 5 to 10 percent of those who start as analysts ever reach MD. This is a general bulge-bracket figure, not a Morgan Stanley-specific statistic.

Reach MDAbout 5 to 10 percent of starting analysts (Mergers and Inquisitions, bulge-bracket industry benchmark, not Morgan Stanley-specific).
ED to MDRoughly 2 to 3 years, gated on bringing in business, not on tenure.
MD compNot asserted on levels.fyi. The only credible figure is a bulge-bracket industry benchmark of roughly $1M to $2M plus for a junior MD, not a Morgan Stanley number.
HeadcountRoughly 83,000 employees as of December 31, 2025 (10-K). The MD share of that is not disclosed.

The rarity stat and the $1M to $2M plus figure are bulge-bracket industry benchmarks, not Morgan Stanley numbers.

How the promotion timeline typically runs

Conventional reporting, not an official Morgan Stanley timetable: Analyst typically runs about 1 to 3 years, Associate about 3 to 6 years, Vice President about 6 to 9 years, and Executive Director about 9 to 12 years. The jump from ED to Managing Director is the hardest step, roughly 2 to 3 years in the ED ranks and gated on bringing in business rather than on time served. Treat these durations as typical heuristics, commonly reported as of June 2026, not official Morgan Stanley policy.

  1. 01

    Identify your band by scope, not title

    Morgan Stanley uses shared corporate titles across divisions, so place yourself by the scope you own: Analyst owns modeling and production, Associate owns workstreams end to end, VP owns deals or desks and client responsibility, Executive Director owns deal execution and relationships, Managing Director owns revenue, origination, and P&L.

  2. 02

    Write bullets at the band's altitude

    Production and modeling for Analyst, owned workstreams for Associate, deals and revenue influenced for VP, deal execution and relationships managed for Executive Director, revenue and clients originated for Managing Director. A resume written one band too low reads as the lower level, because the shared title will not correct it.

  3. 03

    Translate scope into numbers

    Attach a denominator to every claim: deal size, revenue influenced, books or systems owned, teams managed, time or quality deltas. Cross-reference levels.fyi for both the Investment Banker and Technology tracks, accessed June 2026, and remember these are commonly reported figures, not official Morgan Stanley data.

  4. 04

    Scan and iterate on ResumeAdapter

    Upload to ResumeAdapter to see your score against the Morgan Stanley job description, the scope language missing for your target band, and a rewrite plan that quantifies the level you are pitching.

FAQ

Morgan Stanley levels FAQ

The questions candidates surface when they cross-reference their experience against Morgan Stanley's Analyst to Managing Director ladder. Answers are byte-identical to the FAQPage JSON-LD, because AI engines that extract HTML and AI engines that extract JSON-LD should not see different text.

What are the levels at Morgan Stanley?

Morgan Stanley uses corporate titles rather than numbered levels. The canonical finance ladder, from junior to senior, is Analyst (roughly years 1 to 3), Associate (3 to 6), Vice President (6 to 9), Executive Director or ED (9 to 12, a mezzanine rung between VP and MD), and Managing Director or MD (12 plus, performance and origination gated). A generic Director title sometimes appears but is non-standard and team or region dependent. Technology uses the same titles, not a separate ladder. Morgan Stanley publishes no official salary or level map, so the pay attached to each title is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026, not official Morgan Stanley data.

What level is VP at Morgan Stanley?

Vice President is the senior level above Associate and below Executive Director, commonly reached around 6 to 9 years in. A VP owns deal or desk execution, manages associate and analyst teams, and carries real client and revenue responsibility. It is two rungs below Managing Director: the order is Analyst, Associate, VP, Executive Director, then Managing Director. Technology VPs (L5) sit at the same band under the same title, commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026 around $244K total compensation, which is not official Morgan Stanley data.

How much do analysts make at Morgan Stanley?

On the Investment Banker track, Analyst total compensation is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026 with a median around $140K and a range of roughly $110K to $180K plus. On the Technology track, the Analyst level (L3) is around $114K. These are crowdsourced community figures, not official Morgan Stanley data, and actual pay varies by division, location, and year. Total compensation means base salary plus bonus plus any stock.

What is the difference between an Executive Director and a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley?

Executive Director is a mezzanine rung between VP and MD, commonly years 9 to 12, focused on deal execution and managing relationships, with limited or shared P&L and no primary origination yet. Managing Director is the most senior professional title, commonly year 12 plus, focused on revenue generation, winning deals, owning client relationships and origination, and carrying direct P&L. EDs are promoted from VP; MDs are promoted from the ED ranks, roughly 2 to 3 years ED to MD, gated on bringing in business. On comp, the Technology ED track (L6) is commonly reported on levels.fyi as of June 2026 around $365K; the Investment Banker ED band and all MD bands are not cleanly reported, so no MD number is asserted here. The only credible MD figure is a bulge-bracket industry benchmark of roughly $1M to $2M plus for a junior MD, which is not a Morgan Stanley number.

How many Managing Directors does Morgan Stanley have?

Morgan Stanley does not publish a firm-wide total number of Managing Directors, so any total is not disclosed. What the firm does announce is its annual MD promotion class: it named 173 new MDs in 2025 (announced January 10, 2025), versus 155 in 2024, 184 in 2023, and 199 in 2022 (source: Banking Dive and Business Wire). For context, Morgan Stanley reported roughly 83,000 employees as of December 31, 2025. The total MD headcount itself remains undisclosed.

How hard is it to make MD at Morgan Stanley?

Very hard. Managing Director is the top of the ladder, performance and origination gated, and reached only after the Executive Director band, commonly around year 12 plus. As a bulge-bracket industry benchmark, only about 5 to 10 percent of those who start as analysts ever reach MD (Mergers & Inquisitions, a general bulge-bracket figure, not a Morgan Stanley-specific statistic). Promotion runs from the ED ranks, roughly 2 to 3 years ED to MD, and is gated on bringing in business rather than on tenure alone.

Who pays more, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley?

At the junior and mid bands the two are broadly comparable, and any gap is smaller than the variation by division, desk, and year. On commonly reported levels.fyi figures as of June 2026, Morgan Stanley Investment Banker pay runs about $140K for an Analyst, $238K for an Associate, and $363K for a VP. Goldman Sachs is reported in similar territory, with banking and engineering pay quoted separately. Neither firm publishes official bands, and ED and MD comp is not cleanly reported at either, so the top of the ladder is hard to compare directly. For the Goldman side band by band, see the Goldman Sachs levels guide.

Continue

Go deeper on the rest
of the Morgan Stanley stack.

01 / Pillar

Morgan Stanley resume guide

The pillar covering Morgan Stanley's hiring bar, the values it screens for, and the process. Start here if you have not already.

Read
02 / Spoke

What Morgan Stanley looks for

Morgan Stanley's core values mapped to resume language, with do-this and avoid-this examples and the commercial lens.

Read
03 / Spoke

The Morgan Stanley interview process

The superday, the technical and fit rounds, and how the band you are hired into is decided.

Read
04 / Peer comp

Goldman Sachs levels

The Goldman Sachs ladder, Analyst to Partner, with commonly reported pay band by band for a direct bulge-bracket comparison.

Read
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